I am a great fan of the beautiful Cassowary species and living in the UK I was quite surprised to see so few collections holding this species I was wondering if these collections have ever managed to breed the species and how many they hold of the species. Southern or double-wattled cassowary - Birdland park & garden Chester zoo Hamerton zoo Paignton zoo & Edinburgh zoo The following Cassowary species I believe are currently not held by any UK collections but my question for these species does anyone know if or when any of the following species were kept in collections in the UK. Aru Islands Cassowary – none Bennett’s Cassowary – none Dwarf Cassowary – none Golden necked cassowary – none Goodfellow cassowary – none Heck’s cassowary – none Johnstone’s cassowary – none North coastal cassowary – none North new guinea cassowary – none Northern cassowary – none One-wattled cassowary – none Painted throated cassowary – none Philip’s single-wattled cassowary – none Red necked cassowary – none Rothchild’s one-wattled cassowary – none Sclater’s cassowary – none Seram or common cassowary – none Violet-necked cassowary – none Wandammen cassowary – none Westermann’s or Papuan cassowary – none Woken or beccari’s cassowary – none Yapen golden-necked cassowary - none Are there any prospects of any of the above species actually coming to the UK?
Golden-Necked Cassowary were held at RSCC until not long before it closed, and were photographed by numerous Zoochatters whilst there. Sadly, as I never got there, this is a taxon I missed out on Considering you obviously used ZTL in order to come up with that list of current holders of Double-Watted, along with other cassowary taxa, I suspect your first port of call regarding your questions should be to look on there!
Many thanks TLD as we all know some information could be out of date on ZTL as I found out with Drayton Manor Park & Zoo listings around 50% are no longer their and they have some new arrivals too. It's mainly the past I am interested in for this species as I couldn't find much information on google or any other search engine I tried.
According to ZTL these are the former holdings within the UK Aru Islands Cassowary Chester zoo Aru Islands Cassowary Whipsnade wild animal park Aru Islands Cassowary London zoo Bennett’s Cassowary London zoo Dwarf Cassowary London zoo Golden necked cassowary London zoo Golden necked cassowary Rare species conservation centre Goodfellow cassowary London zoo Heck’s cassowary London zoo Johnstone’s cassowary London zoo North coastal cassowary London zoo North coastal cassowary Paignton zoo North new guinea cassowary London zoo Northern cassowary Chester zoo Northern cassowary London zoo One-wattled cassowary London zoo Painted throated cassowary London zoo Philip’s single-wattled cassowary London zoo Red necked cassowary London zoo Rothchild’s one-wattled cassowary London zoo Sclater’s cassowary London zoo Seram or common cassowary London zoo Violet-necked cassowary London zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Rode bird garden Southern or double-wattled cassowary Howlett’s wild animal Southern or double-wattled cassowary Bristol wild place Southern or double-wattled cassowary Bristol zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Dudley zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Whipsnade wild animal park Southern or double-wattled cassowary Birdworld & underwater world Southern or double-wattled cassowary Knowsley safari park Southern or double-wattled cassowary London zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Lympne wild animal park Southern or double-wattled cassowary Sherwood zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Flamingo zoological park Southern or double-wattled cassowary Twycross zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Marwell zoo Southern or double-wattled cassowary Peak wildlife Prk Southern or double-wattled cassowary Fife animal trust Southern or double-wattled cassowary Glasgow zoo Wandammen cassowary London zoo Westermann’s or Papuan cassowary London zoo Woken or beccari’s cassowary London zoo Yapen golden-necked cassowary London zoo Can people please help with when these species were in the collections last?
Blackbrook also held Aru Islands cassowary. Chesrter has never bred cassowaries. Edinburgh and Paignton have.
I must note that there are only three species of cassowary. The bulk of the lists above are made up of dodgy taxonomic names dating from when every second cassowary was treated as a separate subspecies.
Chlidonias which would you say are the main three species so as I can then work out the sub species Many thanks all for the information please keep it coming if you more about UK breeding of these wonderful birds
Double-wattled (casuarius), Single-wattled (unappendiculatus) and Dwarf (bennetti) are the three recognised species; again, if you look on ZTL from where you got this list it will tell you which are which.
The collections you've listed in your first post all hold pairs, apart from Paignton, which holds 3.0 (including 1.0 subspecies)
Dudley certainly had cassowary in 1978. I'm fairly sure that the species was at Dudley after this date but I don't have any later photographs of them.
Not sure when, but I'm given to understand from a conversation with someone currently volunteering at the collection that it now only holds a single individual; I'd assume that if you are looking at ZIMS or similar the records have not been updated yet.
Hamerton do only have the 1 at present they should have at least a pair before the end of this year. If things go to plan with building work.
I have a photo - somewhere - of one at Shavington Zoo (or possibly at Dr English's house in Haslington!) c.1931. Not sure which species.
My earlier post was made in haste and from memory. I have now had time to check details of the cassowaries hatched at London Zoo about 150 years ago. • 21st June 1864 – Bennett’s cassowary • 22nd June 1866 - common cassowary (presumably double-wattled) • 18th July 1867 - common cassowary (presumably double-wattled) Anybody interested in cassowaries should visit the Tring Zoological Museum. The founder, Lord Walter Rothschild was obsessed by cassowaries and he acquired more than sixty mounted specimens for his museum. (He also kept live cassowaries in Tring Park.) Unfortunately not all of Rothschild’s sixty plus cassowaries are currently on exhibit in the museum but there is still a fine display of cassowaries on show there.
